How to find IP address for the compact logix

Hi all,
I'm very new to plc programming but good thing is I understands program a bit and try to modify whenever required. I got new job in one of manufacturing industry and my manager asked me to connect one plc which is compact logix L30ER. I don't have IP address. This plc has two Ethernet ports I connected in one of the port and started opening rslinx. I don't know how to add plc address in scan table whose IP address I don't know. I tried even check in "CMD" typing "IP CONFIG ALL" I found nothing from there. Can anybody teach me how to actually find the ip address which we don't have.

Your comments are really appreciable.

Regards,
Rehu

Welcome to the PLCTalk forum community !

The easiest thing to do instead of trying to explain basic Windows IP networking from scratch, is for you to connect to the 1769-L30ER controller with a USB cable.

When you do, the USB driver is created automatically in RSLinx Classic.

Then you can use the RSLinx Classic browsing interface (called "RSWho".. it's a long story) to "drill down" to the controller's Ethernet interface, and right-click to review and configure its IP address.

If you're determined to use Ethernet only, create an "EtherNet/IP" driver and let it broadcast to detect the controller. The older "Ethernet Devices" driver does require that you know the address of the controller before you can connect.

Thanks Ken,

I did know how to RSWHO which actually shows who are active and all the scan table present over there. But my issue is
I have connected even USB Cable and went into RS LINK and didn’t found anything related to usb over there.

What version of RSLinx Classic are you running ? Is it native on your main operating system or inside a virtual machine ?

In general, you just plug in a USB cable to the controller and the USB driver automatically appears in RSLinx Classic.

So let's start out: do you know the IP address of your own computer ?

How are you connected to the CompactLogix ?

If you are also running WiFi, try turning that off so your computer can focus on its wired Ethernet.

I don’t know the version of RSLINX Exactly but I’m using it on virtual machine.
I set my system IP Address to 192.168.42.260.
Yeah even I tried making off my wifi and connected usb. But it didn’t worked Ken. Appreciated for your help.

Rehu09 said:

I don’t know the version of RSLINX Exactly but I’m using it on virtual machine.
I set my system IP Address to 192.168.42.260.
Yeah even I tried making off my wifi and connected usb. But it didn’t worked Ken. Appreciated for your help.

Click to expand...

Did you set the IP Address on the host computer or the Virtual Machine? What software are you using for the virtual machine?

If you have the offline program, you should be able to find the IP address of the PLC inside of the project tree.

I have set an up address to host machine. I think it’s window XP in virtual machine.
Yeah but I don’t have plc program that’s the reason I’m finding trouble in connecting

Rehu09 said:

I have set an up address to host machine. I think it’s window XP in virtual machine.
Yeah but I don’t have plc program that’s the reason I’m finding trouble in connecting

Click to expand...

I use VMWare for my virtual machines. I usually run DHCP on my host port, then bridge the connection inside of my virtual machine and set the IP inside of the VM to match the machine network.

As Ken suggested, the USB is always the default go to whenever I don't have an offline program or IP to go off of. Since you're running a virtual machine, make sure your USB port is controlled inside of the virtual machine, otherwise you might not be able see the connection.

I usually have good luck with this.

I believe there is a software called IP Scan, for what I know you can see every device connected to a switch in there.

Before I can get USB to work I usually have to delete the virtual back plane drive AB_VBP-1, then re-start RSLinx. Seems like when you plug in a USB device it gets stuck on the lat one plugged in and never finds the new one.

USB devices can be especially tricky with Virtual Machines.

We don't know what VM program OP is using, so we really can't give him advice on that.

If it were me walking into such a situation, I would install RSLinx Classic on my host OS, and try plugging *that* in over USB.

Caught me out a few times after a long day commissioning, make sure the USB device is connected to the virtual machine. I use VMware. It has a little icon on the 'Vm banner' to disconnect the USB device from host to the VM.

use bootp.

https://theautomationblog.com/how-to-set-a-compactlogix-ethernet-address-using-bootp/

Rob... said:

Caught me out a few times after a long day commissioning, make sure the USB device is connected to the virtual machine. I use VMware. It has a little icon on the 'Vm banner' to disconnect the USB device from host to the VM.

Click to expand...

This is most likely your problem. Make sure that the USB port you're connecting to the PLC with is connected to the virtual machine, and not the host computer.

To use Ethernet in the virtual machine, make sure that the LAN port of your laptop is bridged through to the virtual machine's virtual Ethernet adapter. You have to do this in VM's "Edit Network Settings". Then in the VM, open the virtual Ethernet adapter and set it to a static IP address, on the same subnet as the planned IP address of the PLC. (First 3 numbers of the IP address are the same, subnet mask = 255.255.255.0).

Allen Bradley's DHCP/BootP tool will browse devices that have not yet been assigned an IP address, and allow you to assign them an address. Just make sure that after you assign an address, that you use the tool to disable DHCP in the target device, so that it doesn't lose it's address when you restart.
You can downloaded instructions for using this tool easily, just google it.

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